Regional chronostratigraphical correlation table for the last 270,000 years
North Atlantic – Greenland – West, North, Central, Eastern Europe, Russia – Siberia
GSA 2012 PRELIMINARY VERSION FOR FEEDBACK
WORK IN PROGRESS
-35
Late Pleistocene:
Shackleton et al., 2000; 2004
Heinrich events:
McManus et al., 1994
Middle Pleistocene
Lisiecki & Raymo, 2005
MIS 6 Margari et al., 2010
MIS stage boundary ages,
MIS substage midpoints:
cf. Lisiecki & Raymo, 2005
Oatm.‰
98
[4]
a
[G Co
C- n
1,1 te
-6 nt
]&
BD
P-
lic
40
50
60
70
Lublinian
Cherepet’
Le Bouchet 3
Prylukian / Kaydakian
D n i e p e r i a n
80
90
100
110
120
N e o p l e i s t o c e n e
pollen zones
Le Bouchet 2
Salyn loess intramezin loess
Krutitsa
soil
Mikulinian
K M
ni urs osc
ep k ov
er so ia
il
n
Murava
ai
tja
M
m
Ze
Hagenholz
Glaciation
(?)
Meikirch interstadial complex
130
140
150
160
170
180
190
200
210
Romny
soil
220
230
Le Bouchet 1
?
Zhizdra
(?)
240
Krznanian
Hagenholz
Glaciation
Complex
Rissian
Beringen Glaciation
W
ar
th
Odranian
D
e
Linexert
So
zh
Eemian
M7
M6
M4b
M3
M1
LS
ka
i
Melisey I
Merkine
M8
Mezin Complex
St. Germain I
Wartanian
185
30
Ku
Melisey II
Ribains
250
Orchik
loess
260
270
Interior ‘Continental’ Europe
Late Pleistocene glaciations:
Scandinavia: Mangerud, 2004; modified
North Sea: Hijma et al., 2012
Alps: Preusser et al., 2011
Middle Pleistocene glaciations:
North Sea, Netherlands: Busschers et al., 2008
N Germany: Ehlers (2004)
Swiss Alps (N): Preusser et al., 2011
France:
Beaulieu, 1984; 1992
Pons et al., 1992
Beaulieu & Reille, 1992
Reille & Beaulieu, 1995
Age
(ka)
20
k
la
ed
in
130
Zeifen
-2
Si
V a l d a i a n
P o o z i e r i e
o
ow
Prychernomorsk-Udaian
a
tij
Ba
l
Goulotte
standard pollen zones
‘Preglacial’
Last
Interglacial
96
BD
P-
Li
Swiecie
N e m u n a s
Middle
W i s l a
Upper
LGM
‘ P l e n i g l a c i a l ’
Grand Bois
pollen zones
115
Eemian
Riss-Würm
interglacial
re
nt
he
1
ere
nt
h
th
ua
Be nian
la
ru Sta
g
s
Ru ian es
St
ss
ag
ia
n
es
Pl
U
ai
kr
n
ai
St
ni
ag
an
es
Pl
ai
La
n
ke
St
ag
B
Bi a
es
og ik
Co en
a
l
re ic
s
xt
en
Fr
t
en
ch
M S
as tag
siv e
lo e C s
ng e
po ntr
lle al,
n Vo
re s
Po
co g e
lis
rd s
h
s
St
ag
es
et
E
or
el
EG
E6
E4b
E3
E1
LS Kattegat
? 1.
advance
Northwest ‘Atlantic’ Europe
Greenland Ice cores:
Meriadzek platform:
Anderson et al., 2006;
Toucanne et al. 2009
Svenson et al., 2006;
Sea level rise:
NGRIP dating group, 2008.
Waelbroeck et al. 2002
NGRIP members, 2004 (further tuned)
Barker et al. 2011 (synthetic GISP2 record, modelled
on Epica Dome-C Antarctic millenial variabilty)
This poster version was produced for GSA meeting, Charlotte 4-7 November 2012
Birrfeld glaciation
Early Würmian
Herning
40 50 %
18
North Atlantic and Greenland
Selected references
an
d
lp
in
eS
ta
ge
Sw A
s
iss lp
i
m hi
ar gh ne
gi
I
G n o mou ce
er f A n
m
an lps tain Sh
s
e
F
A
Würmian
Brørup
rf
-40
Lower
Middle Pleniglacial
Early
Pleniglacial
LGM
re War
nt th
he e-2 1
D
?
e
att
ang
synthetic
GISP2
8
Oceans
D
Late
243
270
Global divisions
Middle Weichselian
LGM
?
7
260
ut gia h S
er n e
N co sh a
or as el
w tl f
eg in
ia e
in
n
la
fjo
nd
rd
s
S
nt ca
r
N al N nd
or
in
w o
o e rt
Ce
r
og
ge
ge
r
ge
r
og
?D
Rehburg
Grudziadzi
Pile
30
Salpausselkä (F)
Pomeranian
Poznan
Leszno
pollen zones
Charbon
10 20
10
St. Germain II
Rederstall
do
191
Eemian
http://www.stratigraphy.org/
Treatment of information and division in columns
53º41’48”N
108º21’06”E
Holocene
(unnamed)
rs
6.5
Hondsrug
Amersfoort
55
? 2.
advance
Schalkholz
pe
6iii
6ii
6i
Cleaver B.
North Sea
proglacial
lake
Gossau
interstadial
complex
Odderade
115
Fjøsanger
NW Europe Eemian
nearfield highstand
MIS 5e farfield highstand
30
Rö
6iv
To R
tte idg
nh ac
ill re
130
6
?D
?D
Ipswichian
5e
6vi
6v
av
ia
n
SWIce
S
se hee
ct t
or Ex
N
te
W
nt
Eu
ro
pe
an
St
ag
es
n
tio
Sh
el
fi
nu
nd
a
nd
L
m ow
le
ve
la
Se
a
og
Middle
Gulstein
http://www.inqua.tcd.ie/
http://www.stratigraphy.org
0
Subatlantic
Subboreal
Atlantic
Boreal
Preboreal
Tardiglaciaire
Main
advance
D
IS24
5d
Fana Sokli
Chelford
Glinde
standard pollen zones
IS23
Hengelo
Hasselo
Oerel
Early Glacial
5
Early
5c
123
Bønes
Brown
Bank
Pleniglacial
Late
LGM
Pi
t
er
?S
ilv
Brimpton
Holocene
Late
Würmian
Denekamp
0
74
Early
Weichselian
IS22
Sokli
Torvastad /
Tárendö
Peräpohjola
Younger Dryas
Bølling Allerød
Holocene
Late
Plenig.
L a t e
S a a l i a n
5b
?
central
North Sea
ice lake
Skjonghelleren
Oppstad
Bø
Tulppio
Högemork
Karmoy
Skretting
Late
Late
Weichsel. Glacial
14.7
W e i c h s e l i a n
87
Ålesund/
Sandnes
11.7
S a a l i a n
IS21
sta
nd
-3 in
0 te
m rm
ed
ia
te
H
ig
hs
ta
nd
sh
e
ce
ra
Te
r
M
er
ia
d
Ba ze
y
o k
St
ag
es
ish
Br
it
G
re
en
lan
d
af
Ri
ve
r
ed
ge
lf
Re f B
ce is
iv ca
es y
Br / W
iti es
sh te
-Ir rn
ish Ap
ic pro
ea a
nd che
Ch s
an
ne
l
St
ag
es
LGM
5a
Devensian
Termination I
Iso
to
pe
de
br
te
d
s
hi
in
eI
be
nt
M
ar
er
up
‘S
Laschamp
82
109
118
121
IS19
IS20
Subatlantic
Subboreal
Atlantic
Boreal
Preboreal
Sa
al
e1
260
H6
Upton Warren
central
North Sea
ice lake
?
Ulvøy
Tampen
Hamnsund
Elgane
M i d d l e
S a a l i a n
250
IS12
?Silver Pit
?S
240
H5
Loch Lomond
Windermere
International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS),
International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS),
Subcommission on Quaternary Stratigraphy (SQS).
http://www.quaternary.stratigraphy.org.uk
Holocene ( Flandrian )
rth
230
IS 8
71
96
Ice Rafted Debris
Mass Accumulation Rate
wo
220
e
P
l
e
i
s
t
o
c
e
n
e
H4
present
?S
Ma tanto
n
r
Str swor
ens th
ham
210
n
IS 3
IS 4
-50
Ma
rs
200
e
H3
W o l s t o n i a n
190
c
IS 2
Eustatic sea level (m)
Dimlington
Middle
180
o
M
i
d
d
l
e
H2
IS16
4
t
150
160
bs
s
GS-1 GI-1 12.9
14.7
GS-2
57
Termination II
i
-100
Holocene
( Flandrian )
H1
MD03-2692
-35
IS14
Termination III
140
is
c d oto
18 p
O e
re St
co a
rd ge
s
s
d
or
ec
cu
r
ge
Pa
s’
la
eo
m
no ag
rm n
al eti
cr
ex
130
e
Oatm.‰
‘H0’/‘YD’
3
CR0
120
l
18
to be completed ...
170
110
P
NGRIP: annual count
NGRIP: tuned stretch
GRIP: tuned stretch
‘8.2’
2
40.1
LR04 stack | MD95-2042
MD01-2444
70
P
l
e
i
s
t
o
c
e
n
e
11.7
14
-45
29
Blake
60
By introducing this chart, the authors hope to provide an entry point for workers who want to search literature
and use data across disciplines and national boundaries. Considerable progress has been made in chronostratigraphical
correlation in the last decades through the integration of numerical dating, age-modelling and stratigraphicalcorrelation techniques, to such a degree that pan-european correlation, such as on that presented here, can be
attempted. From this starting point, it is intended to revise the chart periodically as necessary using the website
http://www.quaternary.stratigraphy.co.uk/ to distribute updates, as has been already established for the Gibbard
& Cohen (2008) ‘Global chronostratigraphical correlation chart for the last 2.7 Million years’ (Gibbard et al.
2005; Cohen & Gibbard, 2011; 2012). We intend to show the diversity of schemes in use in Europe north of the
Mediterranean, together with some from deep marine environments, those from vegetated terrestrial environments,
and others concerning glaciation phenomena. Part of the columns display curve data that are measurements from
increasing depth down core sequences. These are plotted on a time axis following depth-to-age conversions that
are subject on occasion to change, an issue pragmatically dealt with when creating this chart, documented in
some detail in this paper. The colour scheme adopted is retained from that used for the 2.7 Ma global chart. This
has been done to ensure maximum compatibility for this 10x enlarged version, the aim being to create a family
of charts. The chart is of necessity restricted to Europe north of the Mediterranean because this is the region with
which the authors are most familiar. Moreover, there is a limit to the amount of information that can be portrayed
on a single chart for practical graphical reasons. It is hoped that the work will spawn further initiatives to produce
charts for other regions. Here the chart is focused on the Pleistocene part (95%) of the last 270,000 years and
left the youngest Holocene interval (5%) empty of detail – again for practical graphical reasons. A future chart
spanning only the last 27,000 years of the latest Quaternary could present the stratigraphical detail and diversity
of this very youngest part of time, once again a 10x exaggeration.
Sequences from the last glacial cycle can be thought of as still in the process of being preserved, i.e. in some
senses as being overpreserved in comparison to those from the next-older and much-older cycles. The chart
highlights the resolution difference in the terrestrial schemes for the last glacial cycle (i.e. Late Pleistocene)
compared to the penultimate cycle and highlights the amount of time occupied by situations that are very much
intermediate between temperate ‘interglacial’ and very cold ‘glacial maximum’ conditions. It demonstrates that
the record of the last 270 ka is more than ‘two glacial maxima plus the Holocene’, but it comprises an additional
200 ka of ‘normal’ conditions, throughout which landscape processes continued to operate.
sta
s
50
100
er
ie
40
IRD
1
L
a
t
e
30
To address important open questions in Quaternary science – these include for example, natural climate and sealevel change in the past versus the present, the global impact of humans in the Holocene versus natural situations
in past interglacials, routing of runoff and supply of sediment from upland and lowland to seas and oceans, the
origin of ice ages, biogeographical evolution and faunal extinctions, and the origin of humans – a major trend
has been to launch global and continental scale studies. This demands the integration of information from different
sources for a large area (both in reconstruction and in modelling studies, either as input or validation). When
such studies deal with the Holocene and the end of the Last Glacial (youngest 30 ka), several dating techniques
(e.g. 14C, Optically Stimulated Luminescence) can be applied, allowing datasets to be equated based on numerical
ages. When one changes to consider past interglacials and glacials in such studies, however, opportunities for
independent age control immediately become more limited and relative dating, age-modelling and correlation
techniques become more important. Pleistocene geological field evidence, especially that collected on land, is
typically of very local observational nature (a core, an outcrop, a local map) and usually presented in a regional,
rather than continental or global context. In Europe in particular, because of the long research tradition, the many
countries each with their own languages, and the sheer quantity of research output, it is difficult to acquire an
overview and to keep it up to date, especially as insights inevitably will continue developing.
MIS
3
11.650 cal BP
11.702 b2K
20
90
Su
ie
s
10
80
5
Holocene
Tyrrhenian
Europe has a long tradition of applying regional chronostratigraphical correlations in studies of its diverse
Quaternary geological record. It has an almost equally long history of revision of schemes and their periodic
replacement. Such revisions were required from time to time because of progress made in the understanding of
the geological record, in the level of international compatability that necessitated the integration of national
geology. It has also been driven by the introduction of new techniques, to test and improve the chronology of
the correlations. In this paper the authors present a chart showing names in use in the various fields of Quaternary
Geology in the region, displayed on a common time-axis spanning the last 270,000 years.
0
Quaternary System Brunhes Chron
I o n i a n
Our reasons to produce this chart
Age
(ka)
V29-191
VM23-081
DSDP-609
VM30-101k
Central N Atlantic
MD95-2042
37.80ºN 10.17ºW
LR04 stack
global composit
T a r e n t i a n
The chart is presented with columns listing stage names alternating with those that graphically display selected
sedimentary sequences. In this way the chart shows the variety of Quaternary sedimentary records that underpin
the diversity of division schemes in the various countries of Europe. The schemes are ordered from global to
regional, from Atlantic to continental, from west to east, from glaciated to periglacial areas. With the chart the
aim was (i) to review the progress that has been made in chronostratigraphical correlation, through the integration
of numerical dating and stratigraphical correlation techniques and (ii) to highlight the overprinting of preservation
on the resolution obtained for last cycle compared to deposits from the next-older and much-older cycles. The
latter is a point often made when contrasting the Holocene with the rest of the Quaternary. Here it is highlighted
for the last completed interglacial-glacial cycle, that is the Late Pleistocene, versus the penultimate cycle that
is the last of the Middle Pleistocene.
Faculty of Geosciences, Utrecht University, The Netherlands
Se
r
This poster presents a regional chronostratigraphical correlation chart for mid and high latitude
Europe, north of the Mediterranean Sea. The chart spans the last 10% of Quaternary time, the
critical youngest interval, that bears strongly on our environment today, and spans the two last
glacial-interglacial cycles. For this period, records and associated chronostratigraphical division
schemes are available based on a variety of sedimentary records, from many adjacent
palaeoenvironments. For historical and geological reasons, a series of regional division schemes
are in use. The chart shows how robust these divisions have become despite being defined on
records of different types.
Quaternary Palaeoenvironments Group, Cambridge Quaternary
Department of Geography, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom.
Ic
er
Introduction
v. 2012b
P.L. Gibbard
-7
0
&
K.M.
Cohen
Department of Physical Geography
ns
http://www.cam.ac.uk/
sio
http://www.geo.uu.nl/
International Union for Quaternary Research (INQUA),
Stratigraphy and Chronology Commission (SACCOM).
Siberia
Poland:
Lake Baikal:
Marks 2011
Prokopenko et al., 2006
Poland, Lithuania, Belarus:
Ber, 2006
Russia:
Molodkov & Bolikhovskaya 2010
Ukraine:
Gozhik et al., 2001
Full documentation of the various records selected from the regional literature is work in progress.
The poster at this stage only presents the short references for the data in the various columns.
Age-models for ice core and marine oxygen isotope data
The chart shows composite records for global marine and Greenland ice oxygen isotope variations and sea-level
variation, single location marine and lake records, and schematic compilations of ice-cap marginal positions,
together with the stratigraphic division columns. All this information is displayed on a common time axis in
the graphics. The horizontal axes for the plots are displayed as in the original publications, however, for some
of the datasets the ages attributed to excursions have been modified, and they therefore differ from the original
age-depth models. Details of the age-depth model in the source publications were consulted. Typically, these
age-depth models before 30,000 years ago are interpolations between tie-point marked changes in the measured
signals, which were assigned target ages, for the Late Pleistocene based either on tele-correlations to the Greenland
ice-core layer count age-depth curvers (to 60 ka), to ice-accumulation modelled age–depth curves. For Greenland
these stretch to ca. 100 ka (NGRIP), for Antarctica to ca. 820 ka (EPICA Dome C). Thanks to the survival of
the Greenland ice sheet and related opportunities for age control, for the Late Pleistocene the age of d18O events
within the Late Pleistocene marine isotope stage (e.g. those known as Dansgaard-Oeschger (D-O) oscillations)
are now fairly accurately known. Conservatively, the dating accuracy is approaching 10^2 years in MIS 3 and
2 and is around 10^3 years in MIS 5 and 4 (although the MIS 5e record near the base of the Greenland ice core
appears too disturbed to pin-point its beginning).
For assessing age in the older record, one typically relies on correlating to Milankovich forcing-age-tuned marine
isotope records, or of the stacked global signal thereof. The Lisiecki & Raymo(2005) benthic oxygen isotope
stacked record and age-model, dubbed LRO4, currently functions as the target-age reference at the resolution
of whole glacial-interglacial cycles. In the LR04 stack, the interval MIS-5-6-7-8 is covered by 43 globally
distributed ocean cores, including DSDP 607; ODP 980 and ODP 982, closest to the European continent (sources
in Lisiecki & Raymo, 2005: their figure 1). For the Late Pleistocene part (22-135 ka), the LR04 stack was aligned
to the age model for core MD95-2042, from off Portugal (Shackleton et al. 2000), on which additional age
modelling has taken place by Shackleton et al. (2004). Beyond 135 ka, the age-model of the stack is constructed
through iterations that at the one hand aims to optimally align and tune the observed milkanovich and submilankovich oscillations in the various records (when applied to a stacked record, after initial graphic wiggle
matching), while at the other hand staying as close as possible to a linear sedimentation rate over the full distance
between the best matched tie-points, such as the terminations of glacials. This is discussed extensively in Lisiecki
& Raymo (2005). The age assigned to Termination II (130 ka; based on U-Th dating of coral terraces, Bard et
al., 1990; Stein et al., 1993) is an important prior in this exercise. Whereas the youngest part has a 1000-year
binned resolution, and the accuracy of ages assigned to the d18O events that it shows within Middle Pleistocene
cycles is between 10^4 and 2·10^3 yr. A planktonic d18O record from off Portugal (Margari et al. 2010) illustrate
the resolution difference of the LR04 Plio-Pleistocene global stack and that reached for the penultimate cycle
in individual ocean cores at suitable locations. An alternative age-correlation target has recently become available.
Barker et al. (2011) have explored the sub-milankovich residual cross-correlation between the Greenland and
Antarctic ice records where they overlap in the Late Pleistocene, and used this to calculate a high-resolution
synthetic Greenland ice record for Middle Pleistocene time. In older studies, different tie ages were originally
chosen, and in these cases the curves plot out of phase on the vertical time axis if no correction is applied. A
pragmatic approach was adopted here to retune the older age-models and correct this artificial problem. For the
chart the original age-depth model was taken as the starting point, assigned the new target-ages to recognisable
shifts in the measurements, and than linearly interpolated new ages for the measurements between, effectively
tuning each curve to that of the LR04 stack.
Global and regional chronostratigraphic divisions for Atlantic and Continental Europe
The global divisions comprise chronostratigraphical Series, Subseries and ‘superstages’ of the portion of the
Quaternary System depicted (from Gibbard & Cohen, 2008). The formal positioning of the base of the Late
Pleistocene Subseries is awaiting the definition of a Global Stratigraphic Section and Point (GSSP), which may
be either in the Mediterranean (base Late Pleistocene = base Tarentian Stage) or in NW Europe (base Late
Pleistocene = base Eemian Stage). In the current chart the latter has been selected because it most clearly illustrates
that two options are currently under consideration (Litt & Gibbard 2008).
The Northwest ‘Atlantic’ Europe part of the chart alternates division schemes of named intervals for Britain (e.g.
Mitchell et al 1973; Bowen 1999) and the NW Europe (e.g. Zagwijn, 1996; Mangerud, 1994) with graphic
records linking glaciated Scandinavia, via the North Sea Basin, to the marine record off the shelves of the English
Channel (Meriadzek Terrace). The last glacial (Weichselian, Devensian) in the chart begins 115 ka and ends 11.7
ka (B2K). The last interglacial in the global record begins at 130 ka. The palynologically defined onset of the
regional equivalent Eemian/Ipswichian Stage in this chart appears a few millennia later (comparable to the onset
of the Holocene versus the onset of MIS 1). The section of the chart on Interior ‘Continental’ Europe contains
the classic division of the Alpine glaciation into a younger Würm(ian) and a next-youngest Riss(ian) period, to
the usage derived from Penck & Brückner (1911). A recently compiled the Alpine stratigraphy was adopted for
this chart (Preusser et al., 2011). Long palynological records have been obtained from Maar lake sequences from
sites in central and eastern France. The sequence for Poland, Belarus, Lithuania, Russia and the Ukraine integrates
phases of glaciation, loess deposition and soil formation. The Lake Baikal record from Siberia is displayed as
an extreme continental record, and a fututre tiepoint between the Russian-Siberian continental stratrigraphy and
that of China and SE Asia.
GSA 2012 PRELIMINARY VERSION FOR FEEDBACK
WORK IN PROGRESS